One of the most curious animated series to come from the Adult Swim stable, Frisky Dingo might be best described as a cartoon superhero take on Seinfeld's formula: a show that's about nothing, but one that's also funny and... more &raquo fascinating all the same. The brainchild of Sealab 2021 creators Matt Thompson and Adam Reed, the premise of Frisky Dingo concerns millionaire playboy Xander Crews, who moonlights as costumed crime fighter Awesome-X. Having vanquished his last archvillain, Crews is urged by his employees to return to his office to sort out the financial mess created by his alter ego. But the arrival of the monstrous Killface and his Annihilatrix (which will pull the launch the Earth into the sun) lures him back into… well, not so much action as lots and lots of paperwork. The resulting episodes of Season 1 concern Crews and Killface's attempts to fund their respective projects while dealing with distractions like Simon, Killface's incorrigible son, and Crews' exasperated second in command Stan. To say that Frisky Dingo is unlike any other superhero series on television (and very few animated series in general) is a distinct understatement, but there's a method behind the madness: that the vagaries of life often get in the way of the loftiest of goals. Of course, that doesn't explain the show's endless non sequiters and moments of true surrealism, like Awesome-X's clueless henchmen, the X-tacles, or episodes like "Emergency Room," in which the entire cast of characters spends the full running time suffering from various horrible injuries. Maybe it's best to think of this as meta-superhero action. All 13 episodes of Frisky Dingo's debut season are compiled on this single disc (each episode runs just 11 minutes), but sadly, no supplemental features are included. That's unfortunate, if for no other reason than they might have provided some sort of explanation for the show's motives. -- Paul Gaita&laquo less

Movie Reviews

Ba-ba-boosh!

Herr Frog | Washington DC area | 10/08/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is, along with the disc for season two, absolutely one of the funniest television series' I have ever seen. The voice acting is brilliant. I couldn't more highly recommend this, at least for those resilient enough to endure the vulgarity.

Couple minor factoids for all you FD enthusiasts out there:

When Killface gets run over by his friend Barnaby and then in his delirium sings out Barnaby's name, he does it to the theme of "The Courtship of Eddy's Father," a television series maybe starring Bill Bixby or somebody in the early 70s.

When Ta'Quil grabs the core of the Annihilatrix and makes his heroic dive, the sound effect was borrowed from "The Six Million Dollar Man."

There are some concealed elements of literature here, and a surprising depth of character and plot, at least at times. Didn't realize until this evening that when Barnaby gets soap in his eyes in the shower -- I just thought it was the lamest joke in the whole show -- turns out it was primitive foreshadowing for when, well you know. And (spoiler) when Kenneth spots the big pants first and wins the gold doubloon, that of course is straight out of Moby Dick.

This series is AWESOME, even if it's a little scattered sometimes. Like I had no problem whatsoever with Stan's cloning himself, but if I were to ever show it to my girlfriend I'm afraid she would need some explanation for that, just because it kinda came from out of nowhere. And lots of other little stuff, almost as if the process of scripting and writing this series was done partially on the fly, and little incidental "artifacts" got left in the story without any connection to anything else. It's inconsequential really, but you notice them if you watch a zillion times like I have.

And as for the vulgar humor, for example exactly what's a teabag? If you watch this with your girlfriend and she doesn't know what a teabag is, maybe you should steer clear of this one and go watch a more girlfriend-friendly movie. Which is one of the reasons I don't show this, one of my favorite comedy vids, to my GF. The lewd, juvenile male-oriented humor.

I really would like to form a Wendell Stamps fan club.

And I would really love to see a movie based on this series. And it would be really great to get Chris Penn to play Wendell Stamps, too. For Cody."